GIVEN THE Philippines’ increasing rate of urbanization, interconnectivity through seamless transport systems has become crucial in the sustainable movement of goods, services, and people.
In an attempt to realize this, a car-centric view has been the dominant paradigm in Philippine transport planning, often to the detriment of the millions who rely on sidewalks, priority lanes, and public transport. Although a majority of Filipinos depend on public transport, most road-based projects such as road-widening and elevated highways cater to private automobile owners, which only account for 6% of the population.
Transport advocate group Move As One Coalition emphasizes this disproportion in their study, stating that merely 1% of the 2010-2021 Php 2.8 trillion budget for road-based infrastructure was allocated for public transport. Meanwhile, the remaining 99% was allotted for road maintenance, widening, and construction.
In a survey of 60 populous cities worldwide, the Urban Mobility Readiness Index 2022 ultimately deemed the City of Manila a “lagging city,” with the fifth worst public transport system.
Motions to diversify transport priorities were present in the Duterte government’s flagship “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program, which heralded the construction of the LRT-2 extension and Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), among other projects. Framed as an “expansion” of the BBB, President Marcos introduced the “Build, Better, More” program which plans to continue the MMSP, implement rail projects, and improve connectivity outside Metro Manila.
As such, the bulk of the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) Php 167-billion budget for 2023 will be utilized for building the North-South Commuter Rail and the MMSP—with the latter slated to begin operations in 2028. However, Move As One Coalition policy researcher Katreena Chang still believes that the MMSP is unresponsive to the City of Manila’s “urgent” supply shortages. “The subway may be an effective solution but just doing that will not get you anywhere,” Chang adds.
While no single solution would resolve the country’s transportation woes, the catalyst for more optimal transport systems and policymaking lies in identifying the people using these systems and meeting their needs accordingly, according to Chang. Preliminarily, she urges the government to analyze transport supply and demand.
In conjunction with this, she states that service contracting is the key to providing satisfactory services as this incentivizes transport workers to prioritize commuters’ needs. Chang also stresses the importance of maximizing the budgets granted to the Department of Public Works and Highways and DOTr, as current underutilization makes it difficult to secure adequate funding in the succeeding years.
Alongside these concerns, shifting the car-centric perspective remains a primary prerequisite to rectifying the transport crisis. By restructuring transport systems to cater to the needs of all demographics, transport planning may grant citizens reprieve from the troubles of congestion, public transport crowding, and limited mobility.
